Dan Wetzel's Yahoo column....

[rkhufu7]

It appears to me that he should have been writing about Auburn rather than Nebraska. I mean you have the TCU coach who is only one of two coaches to beat OU in Norman since Stoops has been there. You have the Ball State coach who has done an amazing job. And, you have Gill who has done an amazing job at Buffalo. So instead, they hire a guy who completely flopped at ISU in his only head coaching gig.

The TCU win was vs OU after they lost entire team from 55-19 loss to USC. No OL, no WRs, new QB, and Adrian Peterson with a bum ankle. They were not very good at all. NU should have hired Turner Gill, but they didn't and that is a fact.

[junior4949]

TCU is a good program. They're ranked like 11th right now. They finished in the top 10 a couple of years ago. Now, this is fact. The only fact beyond that is NU didn't hire Gill. Should they have? Well that's completely speculation rather than fact.

[huskerswrkhavoc]

It appears to me that he should have been writing about Auburn rather than Nebraska. I mean you have the TCU coach who is only one of two coaches to beat OU in Norman since Stoops has been there. You have the Ball State coach who has done an amazing job. And, you have Gill who has done an amazing job at Buffalo. So instead, they hire a guy who completely flopped at ISU in his only head coaching gig.

The TCU win was vs OU after they lost entire team from 55-19 loss to USC. No OL, no WRs, new QB, and Adrian Peterson with a bum ankle. They were not very good at all. NU should have hire Turner Gill, but they didn't and that is a fact.

 

 

Uh i don' think they should of and thats my opinion. You saying they should of hired gill is your opinion. In no way shape or form a fact. No matter how healthy OU was or was not, TCU beat them, IN NORMAN. One of only two times that's happened. But hmmm, OU probably played what, another 6 or 7 home games that year? Why didn't they lose more? That's not an excuse.

[Spooky Tooth]

TCU is a good program. They're ranked like 11th right now. They finished in the top 10 a couple of years ago. Now, this is fact. The only fact beyond that is NU didn't hire Gill. Should they have? Well that's completely speculation rather than fact.

 

What gets me is that ppl speak authoritatively about what happened when TO was interviewing HC candidates, and NO ONE knows what happened in that context other than the ppl involved.

 

Three facts I know: Pelini has done well as a recruiter and coach. TG has done very well as a coach. TG has never indicated that he was treated unfairly in the interview/hiring process at NU.

[zE bOp]

I read this column, then i got to the bottom, and i almost shat myself...

 

Link

 

Here's the offending portion of the column...

 

Or even Gill’s own Nebraska, which last year chose LSU assistant Bo Pelini over him. Pelini may prove to be a great hire, but his résumé wasn’t as strong as Gill’s. While both were former NU assistants, Pelini wasn’t an alumnus or a former star. He lacked the name recognition and head coaching experience of Gill.

 

Yet Pelini was determined to be the proverbial “best fit.” How could anyone be a better fit at Nebraska than the great Turner Gill?

 

It was a puzzling snub, Nebraska’s defense being that Gill hadn’t turned the corner at UB. He has now, but the Nebraska decision haunts him because according to the Birmingham News, Auburn is whispering that if Gill was so great, why didn’t his alma mater hire him?

 

And so the circle goes.

 

 

This writer:

[zE bOp]

It appears to me that he should have been writing about Auburn rather than Nebraska. I mean you have the TCU coach who is only one of two coaches to beat OU in Norman since Stoops has been there. You have the Ball State coach who has done an amazing job. And, you have Gill who has done an amazing job at Buffalo. So instead, they hire a guy who completely flopped at ISU in his only head coaching gig.

Chizek was their(AU) DC there earlier this decade when they were winning a ton of games. Then was @ TX for their NC I think. Chizek is a good DC, just needs some players. Hasn't proven he's a good HC yet, though.

[junior4949]

That's the strike against Chizek. He has to have great players just in order to compete. Once upon a time, Bo was surrounded with the same criticism because he'd only been places with great players. I think he quieted critics this year. However, Chizek has not because he inherited a team that had more success prior to his arrival than he had with them. I'd say he's a questionable hire at best. He might turn out to be great, but right now it appears to be a questionable hire.

[zE bOp]

That's the strike against Chizek. He has to have great players just in order to compete. Once upon a time, Bo was surrounded with the same criticism because he'd only been places with great players. I think he quieted critics this year. However, Chizek has not because he inherited a team that had more success prior to his arrival than he had with them. I'd say he's a questionable hire at best. He might turn out to be great, but right now it appears to be a questionable hire.

Yea, I don't think there's any way he'll be better than Tubbs. I actually think Turner would be a better hire than Chizek @ AU but they seem to have a history w Chizek.

[gobigredkent]

I don't get this uproar with the lack of black head coaches. It is no one's right to be a coach. It's a job. People get hired for many different reasons.

 

With regards to Gill not getting the NU job - TO was looking at the big picture and the future of the program. If he passes on Bo last year and instead hires Turner - what is our backup plan if Turner does not turn the program around in 4-5 years? I'm sure, in the meantime, Bo would have been hired by a big-time football program and would not have been available. By getting Bo we now have a backup plan if Bo cannot turn NU around. I believe Gill would drop any coaching job in the nation to come back to NU.

[junior4949]

You really think so? I guess I just never thought football programs had "backup" plans if their new hire doesn't pan out. This is really out of the box thinking, but hang with me. Let's assume Big Charlie gets the axe at Notre dumb next year. Let's assume Gill is hired by Notre dumb and gets them back to a national powerhouse. Do you really think he leaves them to come back to NU?

[zE bOp]

You really think so? I guess I just never thought football programs had "backup" plans if their new hire doesn't pan out. This is really out of the box thinking, but hang with me. Let's assume Big Charlie gets the axe at Notre dumb next year. Let's assume Gill is hired by Notre dumb and gets them back to a national powerhouse. Do you really think he leaves them to come back to NU?

First, I can't see ND as being anything but a snake pit for most coaches, including Gill. Maybe I'm wrong, but something is not right at ND and I think there are better big time programs that Gill would be better off considering.

 

As for the NE thing, OZ basically said he hired BO on the strength of his defensive resume, the guy is a proven commodity as a great DC at big time programs and OZ wanted that at NE. BO had a number of quality coaching years in the NFL. Plus OZ said that BO reminded him of the 'Bobfather'.

 

At NE, Gill was mainly the QB coach for awhile and in various other lesser assistant roles. Same deal at Green Bay. Gill has done an admirable job at Buffalo and that program can only get better with him there, but I think this year has been a tad overblown since Buff was in the weaker division of that conference, lost to WMU and CMU-- two of the toughest teams from the other division--and their win over Ball ST was a bit flukey IMO: I mean, Nate Davis was coming off the flu or something and they basically handed the game to the Bulls with TOs. Ball ST normally wins that game--this year.

 

So, although I think Gill would have been a great hire at NE, I still think BO had/has the stronger resume.

[mmmtodd]

you could write a soap opera script about this stuff. it smells of the newlywed reminiscing about the "one that got away." i think it would have been awesome to have tgill as our HC. but, i trust TO and Bo seems to working out rather nicely. oh, woe is me, the many problems of the husker nation when we argue about who should be our head coach when i would have to say we're all pretty damn happy with the current one. this bowl game cannot get here fast enough.

[gobigredkent]

Jan 1 cannot come fast enough.

[newenglandhusker]

Using the "Ask Dan" function on the webpage, I have submitted the following to Mr. Wetzel:

 

Not necessarily a question, per se but more of an observation. Your "Best Fit" article on Gene Chizik does raise good questions as to why Turner Gill did not get hired at Auburn, however your points of defense seem to be lacking in insight.

 

As a native Nebraskan and someone who has followed the program religiously (obviously) quite longer than you, I can say the questions raised about Gill not being hired by Nebraska as the Head Coach last year at around this time show a lack of research and, as stated above, insight. One needn't look too deeply into the situation to see that, at that particular point in time, Gill was not the best candidate to make an immediate impact as the next coach of the University of Nebraska. Gill is most certainly an incredible prospect and, as you look back on his body of work as a coach, you can say he has been quite successful. Having coached National Championships at Nebraska and talents such as Tommie Frazier, it is clear the man is talented and knowledgeable. Taking his experience into account should raise an immediate answer as to why he was not hired at Nebraska: offense. Gill played quarterback, coached quarterbacks and had a primary focus on the offensive side of the football.

 

Did you bother to look into the type of season Nebraska had put together that resulted in the firing of Bill Callahan? The woes were on the *defensive* side of the football and Callahan was ultimately fired because he was either unwilling or unable to separate business from his friendship with Kevin Cosgrove, the Defensive Coordinator. There was a direct relationship between the complete lack of defensive effort by the Cornhuskers last season and the firing of Bill Callahan. Much to many Husker fans' dismay, the offense consistently put up points and should have won many games handily, were a defensive unit even *fielded* at the same time. Even cursory examination of just the 2007 Nebraska/Colorado game would have yielded that much.

 

In his press conference to name Bo Pelini as head coach at Nebraska, Interim AD Tom Osborne clearly pointed out as much, stating the decision came down to the defensive side of the ball. Bo Pelini, as I am sure your research for this article had uncovered, is a defensive coach with great success not only as coordinator at Nebraska but at Oklahoma and LSU as well. Of course this happened after being named, however the National Championship garnered by LSU last year and the falloff of their defense during this season attest to Pelini’s abilities. The turnaround at Nebraska is quite clear as well, even at the time you wrote your article. Of course one part of your argument is right, only time will tell if the Pelini hire was the right one to help Nebraska get back on the right track for the long-term.

 

Another point you have overlooked, either purposefully or accidentally, is the relationship between Tom Osborne and Turner Gill. Both men are cut from the same cloth, devout Christians who have the unique ability to inspire others around them to be better men. This is something Gill had honed at his time at Nebraska under Osborne’s tutelage. Osborne was even the best man at Turner’s wedding. To even imply that Gill was not hired at Nebraska due to race is the pinnacle of ignorance, given not only their relationship but the regard in which Gill is held within the state itself. Especially when taken into account the fact Osborne was intimately involved in the selection process of the new head coach.

 

While I do feel the point of race is important, especially when talking about equal opportunities (which is what the system should be all about, not equal *numbers* of coaches from all ethnic backgrounds) for minority coaches, not just African-American coaches, it gets easily muddled in this day-in-age. A point most writers seem to overlook is that if Turner Gill gets hired as a head coach at a different program there are still the same amount of African-American head coaches in the FBS. Perhaps the reason is due to what most writers feel as “justice” and would no doubt be a feel good story. Turner is someone I root for on a daily basis because he is such a great individual, so I can see where others would do the same.

 

In closing I would just like to raise a particular question: as a journalist, is not the point of the profession what most refer to as “journalistic integrity?” To have a voice that can reach many people is an awesome power, one that should not be taken lightly. I would challenge you to, the next time you write an article that calls into question the integrity of the University of Nebraska and therefore the inhabitants of the state itself (which, even if your overall intent was to question the decision by Auburn officials to pass over Gill for a candidate that seems to be a notch below him when resumes are compared, a resounding theme of the article did, in fact, question Nebraska and imply race as a deciding factor), put forth more effort in research and attempt to capture as much of the true story as possible. This would ensure meeting the standard of journalistic integrity to which you no doubt hold yourself.

 

I should have added an a**hat in at the end...

[Dundermifflinite]

It appears to me that he should have been writing about Auburn rather than Nebraska. I mean you have the TCU coach who is only one of two coaches to beat OU in Norman since Stoops has been there. You have the Ball State coach who has done an amazing job. And, you have Gill who has done an amazing job at Buffalo. So instead, they hire a guy who completely flopped at ISU in his only head coaching gig.

The TCU win was vs OU after they lost entire team from 55-19 loss to USC. No OL, no WRs, new QB, and Adrian Peterson with a bum ankle. They were not very good at all. NU should have hire Turner Gill, but they didn't and that is a fact.

 

 

You're talking out of your ass again. You wanted Brent Venables, who had less success than Bo as a defensive coordinator. However, I recall you saying you didn't want Bo because he was ugly (notice I didn't use your trademark explanation point there), because Hollywood-looks make the man?